Sarkozy says EU enlargement should be suspended

12.07.2005 17:28

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The European Union should suspend further
enlargement of the bloc after French and Dutch voters rejected the EU
constitution, a senior French minister said on Monday, in a veiled
reference to Turkey’s EU entry bid.

According to a Reuters report, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, head
of the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said Bulgaria and
Romania should be allowed to join as planned as their accession
process was too fargone to stop now.

“We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have
been modernized,” Sarkozy said after talks with Prime Minister
Dominique de Villepin.

During the EU charter campaign, Sarkozy strongly opposed Turkey’s
entry into the bloc and called for Ankara to sign a privileged
partnership accord with the EU instead.

Although not mentioned by name, Turkey was clearly his target again on
Monday when he said: “Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely”. Sarkozy
called for Europe to focus its energies on concrete projects, notably
in the fields of energy and giving tax breaks to economically
depressed areas.

Europe’s six biggest countries should work together to become a
powerful motor for a new Europe, he added, without specifying which
countries he was referring to.